The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)
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type of
Colonial Secretary that Macmillan’s decolonisation policy needed, and he
was appointed in 1959 to pursue
that policy at the Colonial Office. Later on
Macleod himself did point out that the decolonisation process
was the only way
for Britain to proceed and indeed his appointment ensured a determined policy
of
decolonisation would take place.
Macmillan. M. Harold.
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, April-
December, 1955, Prime Minister, 1957-63.
Having
been educated at Balliol and served in the 1914-18 War with
distinction and gallantry in the Grenadier
Guards, Harold Macmillan was elected
to Parliament in 1924. At the age of forty-six he was appointed by
Churchill as
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply and two years later to his
first
important responsibility as Minister resident in North Africa. Owing to his
independence of mind
in the pre-war years, he spent his time in political
wilderness and he did not obtain junior office until he
was forty-six. He had
always had a reputation for independence of thought and action. This was,
no
doubt, one reason why he was never made a minister until 1940. For example, he
resigned the
Conservative Whip for the lost your of Baldwin’s administration
(1936-37). He felt that the Government by
abandoning sanctions against Italy
were breaking the promises made at the General Election. (He resumed the
Whip
when Neville Chamberlain took over.) By the time he became Prime Minister he
had been Minister of
Defence, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the
Exchequer, the most skillful, the most decisive and the most
ambitious member
of the Cabinet. Macmillan like Eden, believed co-operation with the United
States
should not be put before British policy. This was so even before he became the
Prime Minister.
For example, during the Suez Canal Crisis he was in favour of
not consulting the USA may result in the
American domination of the Canal zone.
Moreover, like Churchill and Eden too, Macmillan believed that Britain
did not
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